PODCAST REVIEW: Freakonomics, Home of the Brave and StoryCorps

HEAVEN forbid, but imagine for a moment
you were taken ill and had to go to hospital. When you arrive at the
hospital, you discover that the specialist in the area you need
treatment for is away at a medical conference. Are your chances
improved or worse because of that?

That's the question that kicks off a
recent episode of Freakonomics, an award-winning podcast that tilts
its head at the world and asks things a different way.

This particular episode – How Many
Doctors Does It Take To Start A Healthcare Revolution? - takes a look
at a subject that is timely as The Bahamas considers a new National
Health Insurance plan, the world of private healthcare.

The presenters ask excellent questions
leading to very pointed observations. For example, they point out
such things as that if a surgeon takes a few minutes to explain to a
patient or their family what is going to happen, then that's lost
money for the hospital. The private system thrives on machines being
used and on beds being filled, the things that can be charged for on
your health insurance. But is that the best way to look after the
needs of the patient? Prevention can't be added to your bill, only
cure.

In Princeton, two billion-dollar
hospitals have recently been built, both filled with lots of beds so
there is always a bed available and the presenters note that if you
go to one of those hospitals for treatment, the chances are high that
you'll end up staying in a bed overnight – even if you don't really
need it. Why? Well, your insurance is paying for it, right? And so
the hospital can charge for it.

Now some of these factors may be
unintended consequences of how the system works, but it's clear there
are hiccups in the operation of it that show that not everything is
working out to the benefit of the patient in all ways.

Oh, and that question about the absent
specialist? It was based on a study on what happened when heart
specialists were away at conferences. The result? Survival chances
went up.

Go listen to Freakonomics to find out
more – it's thoughtful, not a diatribe, and asks questions, it
doesn't insist it has answers.

Another podcast that takes a slightly
unusual look at the world is Home of the Brave, the podcast of Scott
Carrier. The episode I started with was “The Cover-Up”. For those
who don't know of Banksy, he's a guerilla artist, whose work is part
graffiti, part genius. One of his works was a painting of Osama Bin
Laden, on a broken down piece of wall under a bridge in a walking
area just outside Salt Lake City. It showed a graffiti door with a
window at its centre, out of which a painting of Bin Laden grimly
peered. And it got painted over. Carrier puts the question to passers
by as to what they think of the art and its destruction, with
tantalising responses. The episode also spends quite a lot of a time
with a chap called Alex Caldiero, described as a Sonosopher, who
speaks at length on the philosophical implications of the
destruction, before taking up something to scratch out his own
tribute on the wall as a testimony to the invisible.

Sometimes, podcasts live out their
welcome, but StoryCorps is the opposite, there's just enough for a
taste, and sometimes you are left longing for more. The episode I
first listened to took a look at the 20th anniversary of
the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh. The blast killed 168
people and injured hundreds of others. Among those affected by the
bombing were children at a day care centre at the site. Twenty years
on, those children who survived – only six of 21 present - are now
full grown, and the show speaks to some of those who were there. The
children were too young to really know what was going on at the time,
but as they grew up, they learned about it and how they fitted in
with it all. One youngster talks of the pressure to not only make his
parents proud, but also not to waste the opportunity he has when so
many other children had that opportunity taken away from them.
Another survivor, who suffered serious burns and broken bones and was
left in hospital for three months when only a year old, talks of
never really understanding what he was part of, and his father
reveals this is the first time they have really spoken of the
bombing, because he felt personally responsible for what happened
after saying to the boy's mother to take him to the day care because
he was tired and needed to rest. Twenty years on and this is the
first time that the son has the chance to tell his father not to
blame himself. It's a fascinating, brilliant podcast, but it's over
in ten minutes, just when you're wanting to know more.